It's excellent to see sales up almost 400%, but how much is Toyota being held back by Panasonic? If Toyota can only produce 100 cars per unit time and Pansonic can only produce 98 batteries per unit time, then they aren't being held back very much. But, if Panasonic can only produce 60 batteries per the same unit time, then Toyota is being held back significantly by Panasonic.

Help me do some math here. If Panasonic can only produce 500,000 batteries per year, then that is 41,666 batteries per month. How many Priuses did Toyota sell globally last month? 41,666?

2010 Toyota Prius a Big Hit, But Battery Bottleneck is Holding Back Production : TreeHugger

.

Thank you. So technically, until Prius sales are up to 41,666, the Prius sales aren't being limited by Panasonic; however, total Toyota hybrid sales are being limited by Panasonic.

Please be aware that the 60% of Panasonic EV Energy is owned by Toyota.
Capitalization of Panasonic EV Energy Co., Ltd. Increased

The Panasonic EV Energy's HV battery production plan is 800,000 in 2009 and 1,100,000 in 2010.

My observation and guess for July sales are as follows;
Japan Prius: 27,712
Japan other: 3,000 (guess)
US Prius: 19,173
US other: 5,122
other all: 5,000 (guess)
-----------------------
total: approx 60,000 in July

Ken@Japan

The "US other" and "Japan other" hybrids require more battery modules than the 28 modules used in the Prius. Although typically small, 6 extra modules per Camry, it means every 5 Camrys use the same amount of batteries as 6 Prius. I was reminded of this when I noticed the local dealer had 5 Camry and 1 Prius on the lot but I didn't look for Highlanders. I don't know where Ford gets their batteries but I suspect they may come from the same Panasonic plant.

BTW, NiMH batteries also use rare earths, which come from China. China also wants a piece of the hybrid market, not just supply raw resources, so that will be another draw on hybrid battery resources. We live in interesting times.

Bob Wilson

ford has partnership with some other japanese supplier (i forgot, maybe sanyo), panasonic toyota JV capacity is for toyota vehicles only.


they actually increased capacity this year and will do futher increases next year as ken mentioned, so they are not really being constrained.

Which is exactly why recycling of NiMH automobile batteries must be an imperative. I agree with you though that if China is the "middle east" of rare earth metals, then the shift from oil to batteries will create some interesting political-economic times ahead for us.
Also, China can't be the only source of rare earth metals. There must be other areas of the Earth that have such metals.

yes, they already doubled the production from Gen2 to Gen3 for Prius .

If we deduct the "guess," we definitely know that Toyota sold 52,000 batteries in July. Based on what I have read in multiple articles of Panasonic producing 500,000 batteries per year (41,666/month), this means Toyota is sales are being limited by Panasonic's rate of battery production. However, if we go by the figure that you quoted of 800,000 batteries/year, then Panasonic is producing 66,666 batteries/month, and therefore Toyota is not being limited by Panasonic. Does anyone know which scenario is the true scenario?

Please do not use "Panasonic" alone. It's another company.
Please use "Panasonic EV Energy" or "PEVE" for the company.

The 500,000 number was 2008 production.
Please refer to page-20 of following presentation.
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/ir/presentation/2008/pdf/081002presen_1.pdf

Toyota's hybrid production is limited by the battery supply, therefore Panasonic EV Energy increased 2010 plan form 1 million to 1.1 million.

Ken@Japan

Thank you. I think the problem here begins at the reporter of this article, in which they quoted a "blog" as fact. Thank you for making available the primary source. Too bad the author of the article that I had found did not cite a reliable source. 2010 Toyota Prius a Big Hit, But Battery Bottleneck is Holding Back Production : TreeHugger - FAIL article.

Toyota announced new factory early this year for battery production despite bad business enviroment at that time (and nobody thought but Toyota that Prius will sell well).

If gasoline can hold at it's current price or go even higher, Prius demand will only increase above today's levels. Hurricane season is August through October, so who knows what might happen. We could [potentially] see $4 gasoline again if we have some major hurricanes.

Here is why high gas prices are good right now: It keeps automakers focused on hybrids, electrics, and overall efficiency, and keeps consumers on edge about buying new SUVs.
.

The Prius rocks and still marches on:

Report: Prius tops Japan's March sales list, wait time back up to six months — Autoblog Green

This is an April report and they still have a six month backlog.

Bob Wilson

Panasonic acquired Sanyo late last year. Probably for their battery technology.

Well a lot of people don't want to admit it, but world wide, in the US and abroad The Prius is a very popular automobile. With dwindling and/or political mechanizations affecting supply and cost of fossil fuels, I'd expect Prius and all future incarnations of the brand to continue to grow in popularity as the world changes.

However, exploding sales numbers in Japan, I think are just a little misleading. The number of vehicles sold are the number sold but Japan has applied taxes and incentives that make owning a Prius that much more appealing. Plus the driving enviroment in Japan is routinely very congested, with far less open sprawling highway than exists in The US, thus making The Prius a machine well suited for it's enviroment.

I often wonder how much more popular the already popular Prius would be in the US if city carbon automobile taxes were applied? If owning a Prius suddenly meant not only gas savings but also a carbon tax savings, I wonder how many rednecks that now hate Prius would suddenly convert? The open highway, big car, big engine psychology that has existed in The US still exists. I don't think that psychology is as prevalent in Japan.

I think things are changing. More young people today are aware of recycling, and efficiency and maximizing resources for the benefit of themselves and The Planet. Gas shortage of the 70's aside, where 15-20-30 years ago I don't think many young people, or people in general valued automobile efficiency very highly today it's much more respected and valued.

The trick is everyone want's their cake and to eat it too...which means we want the huge, fast and powerful vehicles AND great economical efficiency. Hybrid technology is the current commercially available leader in that area.

But it's exciting times. It will be interesting to see how a vehicle like The Leaf does in Japan.

But, are Prius sales in Japan exploding faster than Toyota's hydrogen car prototypes are exploding?

KABOOM !!!